Therrin carefully approached the ruins, he didn't really fear what might be in there, but it was better to be cautious. A man could lose a lot of valuable stuff that way as he'd learnt many times before. The only weapon he kept on him was a knife, and in truth he kept that as a tool rather than a weapon, he kept his hair short enough to not get in his way.
The ruins didn't look like much, surrounded by trees and most likely completely invisible from above the thick canopy of the forest, they were barely visible on ground level in reality. He was here on a hunch and his senses told him rightly that there was something magical here, fairly deep too. His nose told him though that someone else was here, in fact several someone elses.
Carefully studying the forest floor he spotted the tell-tale signs of booted feet, and definitely multiple pairs...difficult to say just how many pairs though. Therrin followed the trampled pathway up to a stony pathway, some low crumbled walls lay about, barely visible under the growth of plants and then a mound of fresh earth. It would seem he was tracking other treasure hunters, or maybe opportunistic bandits, he favoured the former due to the location of these ruins. Very unlikely that any bandits would be this fair away from the commonly travelled paths.
Kneeling at the hole next to the mound of earth he saw a rope tied to a nearby tree dangling down into the darkness, if these people had any light they were carrying it, presuming of course they were still alive.
Therrin took off his backpack and settled it against the mound of dug up earth. It was time to get his hands dirty again, although his hands were often dirty anyway. He pulled on the rope to test it's strength and satisfied that the people who came before had done a good enough job he dropped through the hole in the ruins into darkness.
As he dropped down his eyes automatically adjusted to make use of as much light as possible, his vision shifting into a kind of colourless version of the world about him, a change that still took him by surprise afte all the years he'd been wandering. Oddly it kind of made his vision better not just for seeing in the dark, but objects seemed more focused, more defined for not having their usual colour. It had it's downsides though, everything being in greyscale made things less pleasant to look at, a fine painting, or carefully drawn image on a scroll, he often found murals in underground ruins and such, but always relied on his nightvision and thus rarely saw them as they had been intended.
The drop was longer than he'd expected, but the rope was plenty long enough and his feet finally touched the bottom of what turned out to be a large chamber, the light of day merely a pinprick above him. Looking around he guessed he was in some gathering hall, wooden benches lay about in disarray mostly rotten and broken with time.
Now things were a little trickier, the dust in the air made sniffing out the people already here a little harder and he couldn't even see any boot marks on the floor. The chamber had several exits too so this could be interesting, or perhaps not as he might not cross their path. Looking at the dangling rope though he wondered now if this was such a good idea, but they'd made an entrance for him and he hoped that it would remain an exit.
Sniffing the air again Therrin noted a faint smell of blood, a kind of coppery fragrance. That did not bode well, fresh blood meant someone was injured, perhaps worse. Sniffing the air more he followed the smell, it was the best lead he had now as he wandered down a corridor that looked little different to any of the other corridors of the chamber, especially given his darkvision.
This was clearly the right way as the smell of the blood got stronger as he walked along, there was the hint of a burnt out torch now too. It struck him at this point that the people who dug the hole and placed the rope into it were not likely to be using it again, this hopefully allowed him the freedom to take his time down here, but he worried at the cause of the death he was sure he was smelling.
The first body he found down a hole impaled upon spikes, a pit trap. It was a classic one, but easy to miss if you were not prepared, the pit was a little too deep and the spikes damaging enough for him to be able to make out much detail on the body, it didn't look like a bandit though. The next body was much further down the hall, again he spotted the danger easily, small holes in the walls and a slightly raised floor plate, pushing the plate now did nothing, but he saw several darts laying about. Carefully picking up one of the darts and giving it a sniff revealed something unpleasant, a poison of some kind he guessed.
The next body was a rather gruesome sight, pointed wooden spears had shot up from the ground, the poor woman impaled. Therrin noted that someone had performed a mercy killing on her, finishing her off more swiftly than the injuries from the poles would have done, she was dressed plainly like the second body, some kind of scholar he guessed.
That however meant there were more, he shook his head. Some amateur treasure hunters he was assuming or archaeologists wholly unprepared for the dangers of ruins that still possessed active traps.
Continuing further he was initially puzzled as he came to what appeared to be a blank wall, the corridor simply stopped. This couldn't be it could it?
Of course not, the wall itself was another trap of sorts. Therrin studied the wall itself, then the walls of the corridor, ah, there it was, a tiny hole just big enough for a finger, he pushed his in, felt resistance and pushed harder. Therrin was rewarded with the noise of the blocking wall lifting upwards, it was quite a large wall, and heavy too, evidenced by the much flattened ex-person the wall had been hiding, at this point even Therrin's constitution was challenged and he had to gulp several times and focus as he moved past the trap and avoided activating any more pressure plates.
For now that was it though, no more traps that he could tell, no more bodies. Therrin was unsure if that meant he'd found them all, or if the rest of the party were elsewhere, the smell of the blood from the bodies he passed was still too strong to know what might be ahead.
The man would continue to smell death among the pillars, which would be the only fresh scent lingering in the dank darkness. And the only noise would surely be his own. But as luck would have it (or perhaps, unluck), another noise would be heard. And the sound was irradict, and muffled.
But it wasn't the first time she found herself in this predicament, though she sorely hoped the time before would have been the last! Either way, the young woman trapped in her stone sarcafagi was no longer dead, for her once dead body had reanimated. Dust turned to longs and with lings, flesh and breath. And with that came life, awareness... And soon panic.
Sure, she normally would 'go to sleep' in her coffin when she went through a dead spell, but goodness, she normally did not lock her own coffin shut! For Averella, (or is so the name she goes by now), knew of her cycles and new when the death one was approaching. After all, the feeling of her insides decomposing was most unpleasant. But it seemed her most shocking part of her life and death cycles was when she came back to life.
It was hard to explain, but to suddenly awaken from nothing for several moons was not something to just easily get over, millenia having past that she had gone through this or not!
But for now she could only cry out from her stone imprisonment and bang her palms against the lid and just hopped someone would open up!
Therrin's journey though the underground ruins was starting to feel like a waste of time, like with the bodies he'd passed that had lost their lives for what seemed to be nothing, but then there was still plenty of this old place to search. In the darkness there was however a feeling of curious familiarity, like he'd been here before, but his memory failed to give him much more than that.
Then he heard mumbles noises, several in fact. In this place echoes were highly likely, but it was clear to him he was hearing 2 separate sets of noises at a junction of corridors, on seemed to be a set of noises, people talking he figured. That answered one question, the group of people was still a group with 2 or more survivors.
Down the other corridor...a pounding noise...maybe a cry of some sort, it was very muted and difficult to make out but he reckoned a single person. He didn't think for too long about it, the group he guessed could take care of themselves, but the other person may need his help, or to be swiftly dispatched, one was certainly easier than several.
Therrin followed the light noise to a surprisingly homely room, unusual for the age of the ruin it was relatively well kept although still aged, there was even an intact wardrobe here. In the middle of the room was a sarcophagus, resting on top was some kind of supportive beam that had failed in it's responsibility.
This game Therrin pause, generally the only thing likely to be trying to get out of a sarcophagus was one of the undead, but the way the occupant was crying out suggested a level of panic the undead normally didn't possess. He didn't fear the undead anyway, his own immortality usually made him an uninteresting prospect anyway, he'd let a vampire bite him once just to see what happened. His blood "cured" the vampire...well...partially, it made the creature's heart beat, but inside a decayed and dead body which resulted in true death for the creature. The look of surprise had been quite funny at the time though.
He shook himself out of his memory and then took position at one end of the beam, placing his arms around it he strained. Damn it was heavy, the thing was made out of stone rather than wood, how the rest of the room's ceiling hadn't fallen in he didn't know. With another strain his wolf-kin blood kicked in, he felt his muscles thicken and the hair on his skin get thicker, the beam started to move. Even with his enhanced strength it was almost too much, but eventually he managed to slide the beam off the sarcophagus, it made a lot of noise though which he was certain the party of adventurers would hear and he suspected that those that were left were more likely to be the hired guards rather than scholars.
With the beam now off the lid he proceed to start lifting the lid to see who, or what was inside.
The second she heard something scrape at the top of her coffin made her pause. Holding her breath, she tried to listen to who or what had created the noise. She hoped it was a human rather than a monster, or some sort of hungry undead. But as she held her breath she found it difficult to hear over the pounding of her heart.
But then the scraping paused for a moment and her eyes slowly surveyed the ceiling.
"Umm.. Hello?" she began to say, though she said it softly, and just when the beam was pushed away. The noise was intense and made her grit her teeth As her hands shot to her ears when suddenly the dull light of the crypt washed over her.
Blinking timidly, she peered outside of the partially lifted lid and could barely make out the outlined form of a man.she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh! I thought I'd be stuck in there for days!" she exclaimed. "Please.. If you could just remove the rest of my coffin's lid..."
Therrin looked down at the young woman he'd just released, she was no vampire that was for sure, she didn't smell right for one of the undead, plus being locked in a sarcophagus like she was she wouldn't look this pretty...or at least he assumed she was pretty, the greyscale vision of his made some things harder to determine, but "young" and "pretty" were good enough.
"Lady, it would be a pleasure, but if it hadn't been for me you may never have got out, the name is Therrin, Therrin Cortise." He said as he hefted the remaining part of the lid off.
There was something familiar about the girl, he felt like he should know her for some reason, but the memory evaded him, locked like much of his past in a blurred cloud that refused to lift. As much as he wanted to try and figure out what the girl was doing inside the sarcophagus, judging by the room itself it hadn't been the adventurers that trapped her here, but simply misfortune of the age of the ruins and perhaps some dodgy construction work.
"Haste might be advised, there are some people exploring these ruins and I have not yet judged their intentions or abilities, but some of their party have met grisly ends in the traps that have been laid about this place."
Therrin was well spoken given his rough appearance, and well mannered as he offered a hand to the young woman to help her out.
"Oh?" She blinked curiously and accepted his hand. But as it always was when she first 'awakens', her body felt awkward and stiff,and the only bits of clothing she wore were the scraps of decaying cloth that had bound her during her death cycle. So when she attempted to take a step outside of the box, her legs seemed to fail her as she tripped, and fell forward into the man.
"Whoah there, careful there, that first steps a tricky one." Therrin said as the girl stumbled into his arms, the tatters of cloth falling from her body as she impacted with him. Her slight weight was not a problem at all even without his enhanced strength, but even in the gloom of the underground ruins his greyscale vision was now taking in a rather attractively formed young woman and was glad of the darkness and his thick beard as he felt the blood of embarrassment flood his cheeks.
It wasn't that he'd never spent time with women, but the opportunities were few and far between by his own choosing most of the time, nor did he put much effort into making himself appealing, unkempt beard and generally unwashed smell of one who relied on rivers and streams to clean himself was generally not what women wanted from a man. Although the last woman he'd had in his arms had been trying to kill him, she was naked too, but completely deranged from eating a root he'd specifically told her not to.
"Umm, right, you okay there?" he asked, whilst still holding her up, she seem a little disorientated and he wasn't sure she'd taken in his warning about the adventurers.
Brow furrowed, she shook the runes' container again, and emptied the container on to the forest floor, doing her best to ignore the massive hole in the ground beside her. "By the Ancestors.." she hissed as the runes tell her the same thing, as her scattered cards do; that she is meant to go down into that hole. "Perhaps I can go down another time..." she mumbled, as she gathered the runes, shook them, and then tossed them to the ground; the runes deny her attempt at postponing the inevitable. A sound, suspiciously like laughter, comes from the large feline, lounging comfortably on the other side of the hole; he twitched his tail as he looked over at the woman, who is crouched and glaring down at her runes and cards. Stretching, the feline got to all fours and languidly stalked over to the woman, nudged her shoulder, which caused her braid of violet hair to sweep across the staff that was strapped to her back. The woman glanced over her shoulder at the feline, her sea green eyes sparkling with annoyance; the feline flicked his ears forwards, as if to say, "You should know better than to argue with the fates". With a huff, the woman gathered up her runes and cards, and stowed them back into her satchel. "I don't need any of your sass, Twin" she grumbled as she slowly peered over the edge of the hole, she eyed the rope suspiciously.
"You have two choices, I can either carry you down on my back or you can stay up here" she said, as she tugged on the rope, making sure it was secure. The feline, flicked a ear, and with out further ado leaped down into the hole. "By the Ancestors! Ret!" she cried out, as she quickly started climbing down the rope, all the while mumbling furiously under her breath. What seemed like a lifetime, she finally reached the end of the rope, and the bottom of the hole. She took a deep breath, as she glanced up and saw the small light shining, from the opening. Ret nudged her hand, purring and twitching his tail; absentmindedly she patted him on the head with one hand, and the other dug through her satchel.
She pulled an orb, from her satchel, and with a whispered word, it began to emit just enough light to illuminate about 60 feet in all directions, and float into the air. With a stern look, Ret took point, and began to lead the way through the ruins; his tail high in the air, as he carefully led the woman around the recently deceased bodies and traps. The both hesitated at the crushed remains on the ground, with a terrified glance at Ret, she took a deep breathe and shakily began walking again. "What have the Fates gotten me into" she mumbled as she turned down a corridor, her eyes swept all around her as Ret jumped ahead. The sound of voices ahead, had the two of them slowing slightly, as they edged closer to a door way and peered into a room, where a man and woman were talking. Ret's fur raised, as he stared at the two people in the room, a low growl emitting from him; his tail knocked against the orb, causing it to float further into the room, and leaving him and the woman in the dark. With fear filled squeak, the woman clambered forward, to hurry and get back into the light, not realizing that it had stopped just a few feet from the other two.
Any words past this point were easily lost as she found herself caught in the man's powerful arms. And as dizzying as the moment was to find herself so unfortunately and most intimately close to the man, she realized, (and worried) by the smell and feared it was her! After all, she had not known what she smelled like personally, after recomposition of her body, so she did not know she smelled like the scented, wood burned oils that had soaked the linens that now bound her.
Though naturally now the scent was much more faded, just like the rags that were falling apart on her body. It was at this realization, that her clothing seemed to he crumbling away that the weak legged woman gasped and found herself fumbling to catch her clothing while still being held supportively by the man.
In turn- his cheeks weren't the only ones that were scarlet. Unfortunately for her, her crimson cheeks were a lot more noticeable. This was turning out to be quite the predicament, and not one she was sure she liked! The man, though polite, appeared quite savage, which only served to confuse her. But he did help, she had to remind herself. But perhaps, for other reasons, she found her tongue tied, for when she opened her lips to speak- not a sound came out. But it was cut short by a noise, which startled her and without thinking, she suddenly clung to the man and peered out into the shadows, only to see just the blobbed darkness of another something as her hold on Therrin tightened.
Therrin blinked in the sudden light as his day vision returned, the room now awash with colour...sort of, there was only so much colour stone walls could have. The room held a little more detail now, looking much like a bedroom it was relatimely spartan, but what furniture he could see appeared to be ornate and expensive, albeit very old. He could now see the girl more clearly as she was no longer various shades of grey, but instead a rather strong shade of beetroot....he guessed due to the same embarrassment that might now show in his own scruffy features. He coughed and placed the girl behind him, he assumed she had some kind of immortality as he was pretty sure she'd been in the sarcophagus for quite some time, but the power came in many forms and often still allowed for pain, so he chose the protective stance...which took some doing as she gripped him tightly, a sensation he was trying not to focus on.
"Show yourself, light orbs don't just appear from nowhere." He said, his senses telling him of a feline presence and something else he couldn't readily identify.
Ret put himself in between the strangers and the woman, pressing himself against her legs; his low growl, caused the hairs on the woman's arms to raise. She cursed under her breath, and with a quick hand gesture, she caused the orb to float higher, and shine brighter; helping everyone in the room see one another even better.
From past experience, she quickly released her staff from her back, and gripped it tightly; her stance stiff as she quickly glanced over the two. Not registering the small female as a threat, her attention zeroed in on the bearded male. Her tail unwrapped from around her waist, and swayed into position at her back. "I didn't realize anyone else was in the ruins" she lied, really hating the fact that runes decided to tell her to go down into hole.
Her eyes hurt a bit as they adjusted to the light, but seeing the woman and small cat, her grip loosened. They seemed harmless enough, but from the man's warning tone about the explorers lurking here, she could only deduce this cat lady was one of them.
"Uh-huh" Therrin said "So the recently dug mound of earth, my backpack laying against it, the rope dangling into the hole and the several freshly killed corpses that you must have passed to get here didn't evidence that someone else was already here?" He said.
Whilst it was difficult with the arms around him, a little looser now but still there Therrin adopted a looser stance, he noticed the new woman seemed a little stiffer in her position, it told him of a person wary of combat, but the positioning of her hands on the staff also taught him she knew how to use it, a curious combination, but still a man shouldn't be overconfident of his foe even if like himself he couldn't come to any real harm, still paid to know how to defend oneself...or another if need be.
He still hadn't quite made up his mind on if this female was a foe, however the question lay perhaps unanswered as voices drifted down the corridor from the opposite side of the T junction.
"I 'erd a noise Ferril" said one male loudly.
"You sure Gritch?" said another
"'es not 'earin fings, I 'erd a crash or somefin, i t'were down this way" said what might be a female voice, but could have been a male with a higher pitch.
3 people...possibly more were coming to investigate the noise that Therrin had made when he moved the support beam off the sarcophagus, and they'd see the light before anything else which might give something away, Therrin looked at the light globe and then he grabbed it and stuffed it inside the nearby wardrobe, which he noted was full of fairly ancient tatters that once may have been clothes but were now beyond recognition. The room was once more darkened, which also illuminated the torches the approaching adventurers were carrying somewhere not so distant down the corridor.
Zaramay squeaked as her orb was unceremoniously stuffed into a wardrobe, but before she could give the man a tongue lashing, she heard those approaching down the hall, "Curse the Fates for sending me down this blasted hole" she hissed, as she moved into a position to where she would be able to keep the two already in the room, and those approaching the room. "Ret, be ready" she said, her voice hard as steel.
She glanced over in the general direction where she could only guess the others were, "Look, you are right. I was aware that others were down here, but I didn't come down by choice. If you don't mean me and Ret harm, we don't mean you any harm....Can we have the light back?" her voice was small, near the end; her fear of the dark causing her voice to turn squeaky.
Though fearful herself, she too was not liking being in the dark. Her weight shifted, a hand moving to rest higher up on the man's arm now as she hesitated before saying, "Perhaps.. that would be the best?" Despite not knowing precisely what was going on here, she did not like the idea of any more surprises coming at them in the dark.
"We won't be in the dark long ladies, I just want to avoid these people believing that someone is already here by having light showing when they get close, we won't be in the dark for long."
This was an odd situation already for Therril, he'd been planning on simply looking around for some clue to his past, instead he rescues a woman that he still knows next to nothing about from a sarcophagus and shortly after that bumps into another woman scavenging the ruins, the place was hardly small. What's more is that both these women were attractive, although his own tastes lead more towards the one he'd rescued from the sarcophagus rather than the more aggressive woman with the cat. Now was hardly the best of times to be thinking of this stuff though.
"You get yourself behind the Sarcophagus." He said directing Avarelle with his hands knowing that her vision was reduced again. "You with the cat stand on the other side of door, I figure you're not with them so for the moment we're allies and we can sort stuff out once we've rid ourselves of these people, you saw the corpses, I believe these to be mercenaries who decided to rid themselves of their employers and take what treasure they could instead of protect their charges, wouldn't be the first time I've come across that situation." Therril commanded.
Something struck him as familiar about this situation, more-so than any other time he'd taken advantage of the dark against unknown foes, in fact it was something to do with the woman from the sarcophagus he was sure, but couldn't put his finger on it. He couldn't shake the feeling that he should know her.
"Right" Zaramay said, she moved to stand where the bearded man commanded, with a gesture she directed Ret to stand opposite of her, and dropped into a crouch; replacing her staff with a pair of daggers, that she drew from her boots.
After this she would find a cabin in some far off woods, bury her runes and cards, and hide from the world. She was getting weary of the Fates yanking her this way and that; bending her to their wants.
Averella wrung her hands and looked around helplessly in the dark.
"Do you think hiding is a good idea? If they prove unfriendly... This room has no other exits," she warned, and reluctantly began to back away towards her coffin.
"Hiding? This isn't hiding, you hide when you expect someone not to find you, I seek to lead these people to believe we're not here till I want them to know" Therrin said calmly.
He settled into a position on the other side of the doorway as the sound of booted feet and the random conversation of a group of people who believed themselves to be alone approached, the darkened room steadily lit as the flickering light of several torches approached.
Therrin sniffed the air, he picked up more than 3 people and blood, they were not a careful bunch, they'd killed recently and hadn't killed their blades. He guessed by the bodies he'd passed earlier they'd chosen to kill any remaining members of the people they'd been escorting...if they had been escorting them at all, perhaps they had merely stumbled across them the same way he'd found the rope into the ruins on his own.
They caught the conversation of the people who approached.
"Hahaha! did ye see the look on her face?"
"Oh aye, it were a picture, shame she squealed so much, pretty thing, but too noisy."
"Th' look on 'er man's face were better, made it all the sweeter i reckon."
Therrin did not enjoy the course of the conversation, he might prefer his own company but he didn't like to see people mistreated and this was a rough lot by the sounds of it, a low growl came unbidden to his throat which he stifled before he gave their presence away, however his body was already changing to it's more wolf-like form as his anger rose.
Nervous and blind, Averella tried to remain quiet and still, but her nerves dictated other wise. And the moment she over heard what horrid acts the men had done, she felt her stomach drop and her legs weaken. And though she moved to catch herself so she wouldn't fall, her elbow knocked into a nearby vase, which fell to a crunch at her feet.
Her stomach rolled as she overheard the acts those approaching, had committed. She was careful, not to misuse the gifts that the Fates' had bestowed on her, but hearing what these people had down, she didn't have any qualms about using all her gifts. She glanced over, to the bearded man, who appeared to be more wolf than man at this point, "Watch out for the thorns" she whispered; Ret looked over at her, one of his ears twitched as he realized what she meant to do, he began to back away from the door.
She re-sheathed one of her daggers, and with her now free hand she laid it against the floor, and call forth a small bramble of thorns to appear around the doorway; small enough that the approaching people wouldn't be able to see it, but sharp enough to catch them and cause them significant harm.
She jumped as she heard the vase shatter against the floor, and fought the urge to curse; instead she drew her dagger, and waited for her trap to be discovered.
The thorns presented a slight problem to Therrin, it meant he couldn't effectively use the doorway himself as part of his attack, but he appreciated that the new woman was trying to help. The other female's clumsiness however ruined everything.
"'ere whassat?" said one very nearby voice as the torchlight flickered quite clearly from behind the doorway.
"Ye know what, I reckon there's someone in there." said another voice as the sound of weapons being drawn from scabbards.
Therrin curses under his breath, they had warning that someone was here, but not how many which might still work in their favour. The light from the torches was now lighting the small room which indicated they were very close. The shine from a metal sword was the first thing to be seen as it's point extended past the open doorway, Therrin waited knowing the thorns might yet have an effect.
Then the group of mercenaries appeared, a typically motley bunch that Therrin was not surprised by, why anyone would trust their life and money with these men he couldn't be sure, he certainly wouldn't. Their leather clad booted feet entered the doorway, two of them first, one with a sword and the other with a cudgel that still had old blood on it.
Clumsiness might have been the least of their worries, for despite having the dark as their shield, Averella could see clearly enough of the men's savage appearance, and the second she caught sight of blood glistening in the torch light, she released a yelp and could have fainted.
The torches were immediately raised in her direction, spilling across the floor, over the sarcophagus and was soon near blinding Averella and Therrin. Averella winced away, gritting her teeth and taking a step back, for she was not blind enough from their gazes, which were easily devouring her form which seemed even more tantalizing in dancing light.
"Well, well, well- what 'ave we go 'ere?"
Another man stepped in closer to the first, and also admired Averella in her falling apart 'clothes'.
"Who knew we'd find such treasure here."
Zaramay curled a lip, as she caught the lusty gleam in the mercenaries eyes and with a cruel smile, and a twitch of her nose, she caused the brambles to grow around their legs, and the thorns to pierce their flesh.
"You will not have any of that 'treasure'" she hissed, as she moved to shield the half-naked girl from their sight; her twin blades, reflecting the torches' light.
The thorns certainly caused a disturbance as one of the mercenaries howled in pain, the other just grunted, apparently made of sterner stuff, the ones following bumped into the ones in front.
"'ere, woss goin' on?" "Ger outta me way!" "Lemme look" "Get this feckin bramble of me!" and various other cries of annoyance and surprised shouts issued forth from the 5 mercenaries, 2 carried torches, the others just weapons. They were all fairly rough looking wearing mottled armour that was not well cared for and weapons that had seen better days.
But even in their state of annoyance the leers were clear as they took in both Avarella and Zaramay, both beauties, one for simply being near naked, the other for having "spirit" which the men we more than eager to try and break out of her.
To say that Therrin was a little annoyed was more than an understatement, as a mercenary carrying a wicked looking axe entered the room he was suddenly bowled over as a somewhat furry looking man. The mercenary was knocked to the floor, Therrin on top of him, the mercenaries life was ended quickly and savagely as Therrin's now clawed hand ripped the mans neck open in a single swipe. Therrin took the axe from the hand of the gurgling man and he threw it at one of the other men, it was a clumsy throw, but did enough to distract that man for now.
Surprised to find herself with two protectors, Averella watched on with a stone of guilt in her gut. Despite her age, she had never known nor studied the art of combat, and in this moment felt overly foolish for it. But the blurring movement of Therrin had her screaming in spite of herself as she watched the beast of the man spill blood.
Zaramay closed her eyes, briefly, as blood sprayed from the mercenary that the bearded, well furred, man had ended. "Twin help him!" she commanded, and her black feline seem to grow in stature as he loped towards the doorway to help dispatch the mercenaries; his silver claws and ivory fangs glinted in the torch light. He pounced on a mercenary, with a growl that seemed to hold a thread of pleasure.
Zaramay glanced over her shoulder, to the smaller woman, while switching her daggers to where she was holding them both in one hand, while the other dug through her satchel. With an exclamation of discovery, she tossed a light colored shirt towards the woman; a shirt that on Zaramay fell just below her hips, but on this smaller woman could probably pass as a dress. "Put that on...it will grant some coverage for you, and maybe some protection...do you know how to use a blade? I have plenty" she inquired, once again holding a blade in each hand.
The second she caught it, she felt more of her decaying bands crinkle into pieces. Keeping the shirt pressed to her, she looked over thankfully towards Zaramay. But at her query, she shook her head.
"No... I.. I've never learned." She bit her lip worriedly. Oh what a predicament!
"Worry not, either of you, they'll not get past me!" Therrin growled.
With one man dispatched and another clutching his stomach in pain from the poorly thrown axe Therrin leapt back to his feet, his body automatically taking a combat stance...one that was ancient. Therrin himself did not know what he was doing in that sense, whilst he practiced the martial arts often he did it by some kind of muscle memory, not knowing where he learned it from, only that it felt right to do so.
"'ere, 'e killed 'im!" said one of the currently living mercenaries with a note of surprise. The man raised his cudgel and rushed forward at Therrin, thinking the kill merely a lucky shot by Therrin's clumsiness with the axe, however he found to his loss that it was only weapons that the furred man was poor at, his hands however were deadly as the cudgel missed it's mark of Therrin's head. A swift uppercut hit into the mans chin with such force his neck snapped back with an audible crack as his body then lifted into the air by a couple of feet.
The scene escalated as another set of equally brutish men appeared. One was tall, with a crushed, hooked nose and missing one eye and held an impressive, if not beastly amount of muscles all over his seemingly hairless body a he growled and raised his crooked cut bastard sword. Beside him with a much smaller man, though he was at least as tall as the rough looking woman to his left, who already had her cross bow armed and raised. This man stepped back, his hands glowing as he began to cast a spell.
Darkness began to fog the group, and Therrin would find a round of bolts aimed his way while the mountain of a man charged Zaramay. It would seem the magical darkness that was meant to blind them, did not affect any of the men who were ransacking the ruins.
Now blind and still as useless as she was before, Averella groped around on the side of her sarcophagus before an unseen person struck her from behind, hissing like a snake while he asked, "Going somewhere, little lady?"
With a cry, Averella stumbled back, her entire arm slicing off and dropping inside the coffin, leaving her standing there frozen in shock, sand sifting from the hole where her arm had once been.
Therrin was powerful and agile, but he could not outrun the bolts or even dodge all of them. They thudded into him and he cried out in pain as he felt his body pierced all over.
The woman grinned "Well he wasn't much trouble, surprised he took out Yellick so easily." she said, feeling cocky now that they had a much clearer advantage.
Therrin lay, punctured by several blots, in pain....but not bleeding, the only blood seen was a little around the wounds themselves.
"Don't count the chickens just yet." Therrin said, too pre-occupied to notice the curious way Averalla's arm, or lack of it, was reacting.
He pulled one of the bolts from his chest, rolled judging the position of the woman with the cross bow and slammed the bolt down into her foot. The magically induced darkness foiled even his night vision, but he was a capable fighter and knew how to judge distance. The female bandit then screamed herself, unlike Therrin she was just a normal human. The wound in Therrin's chest where he'd pulled the bolt was already healing.
With some credit to her she tried loading another bolt only to find another bolt slammed into her stomach with a force that seemed unnatural to Therrin's stature, but as with the mercenary he'd killed with the punch in the chin, he was far stronger than he looked. He was also quite angry at this point.
The spell caster heard the screaming as fear chilled his blood. Cursing beneath his breath, he moved further away as he began to prepare his next spell,- which was one he hoped to send his opponents off their feet. Soon the ground began to shake, violently enough it began to crack the ceiling rock above. Not only that, as Averella was trying to catch her footing on the side of her sarcophagus, the thing tumbled forward, and up and over it she went with a yelp, which had her rolling onto the moving terrain as she knocked clean into the injured woman who was grabbing on painfully to her stomach wound.
Not able to see, she couldn't tell that the archer stumbled back into shelving upon the wall, and sent whatever the magic had not knocked over, onto the ground- which created a domino effected as one of the boards from the shelves (for the shelf itself became unstable by this!) hit into a tall statue of an ancient God, and soon the heavy thing began to groan and crack as it fell forward, right ontop of the spell caster, who hadn't the chance to get away quick enough before the thing landed on his legs-
And he howled in pain. And all Averella could do was grit her teeth as the darkness spell still lingered. She couldn't help but feel guilty- had she been the one that set that chain reaction of chaos off?
Zaramay savagely grinned at the man charging towards her, crouched to where she was under his guard, and thrusted up with one of her long daggers, the blade slicing up below his jaw. With a grunt, and a twist, she yanked her dagger out and rolled to the side, as the man fell forward, slack jawed.
Once the ground started rolling, Zaramay tried to keep her footing, but ended up falling painfully on her knees; she groped blindly trying to find somewhere to pull herself back to her feet. Her stomach rolled as it felt like the floor was trying to buck her off, and she heard the screams and grunts of pain from, what she hoped, was the mercenaries.
The woman clutched at the bolt jutting out of her chest. She could feel the blood, both inside and out as her body grew weaker. Seconds later, the darkness spell seemed to lift, and as she lay there in pain,s he saw Therrin and angrily grit her teeth.
"What-" she began to say, blood beginning to fill her throat as she choked. "What are you? Who are you, so I can know whom to curse in my next life."
"Therrin Cortise, and good luck with that, I've been cursed before, they never hold for more than a few hours."
Therrin said as he plucked other bolts from his body, each of the wounds healing up quite rapidly. The mage was now also quite dead along with the larger brute Therrin took in the scene and shook his head.
"Well, that was exciting huh?" he said to Zaramay and Avarella, which is when he noticed Avarella's missing arm.
"uh...are you okay?" he asked of the de-limbed woman.
Curse? Averella knew too well about curses, but no words would reach the archer to protest as she groaned softly and rested into death. She hadn't even remembered her own missing limb until Therrin's words brought her back.
Blinking, she looked over at him, then down at her arm, which was still leaking sand. With a gasp, she stumbled around, trying to look for it.
"I er.. don't worry about that!" she went on, embarrassedly. "It... I just need some help finding the missing limb. But oh! You do not need to help if you don't wish to touch it! Though the arm won't hurt you- it's simply, er... lost from my body right now. But see? No blood! I should be alright, though it is worrisome how much sand I am spilling." At this it made her frown. Rarely did she lose a limb and remain 'alive' enough during her re-lived cycle to remember.
"Maybe if I can retrieve it and sew it back on- it could be as good as new."
She tried to smile as she made her way to her coffin, but even then she was feeling light headed. Though that could be from the fight. She was never a fan of death, or fighting. She hadn't the stomach for it.
Therrin looked around, he was used to missing limbs himself, he could have bits chopped off, they'd almost instantly dissipate into dust and depending on the severity of the wound within a few minutes to a couple of hours at most the missing part would have grown back.
He found the arm lying inside the darkness of the sarcophagus itself, as the room was now dipped into natural darkness instead of magical he could see again, he picked up the limb, currently looking quite perfect, if a little unusual for the sand instead of blood coming from it. He held it in such a way that the sand didn't spill out then walked over to the intact wardrove where he'd stored the light globe earlier and opened the door, filling the room with light again.
"Here, your arm." he said holding it against Avarella's arm. Sometimes such things worked, dpending on the sort of magic that was acting upon Avarella, it might automatically re-join.
He might have had night vision, but she could barely see a thing! Thankfully she knew where most of the things in her room had been- though all of it was askew and she was tripping around and barely making progress towards anything. When she heard the man helping, she sighed a bit and gave a flustered 'Thanks', but when he found the limb and moved to hold it against her, it was most unexpected! Had she seen it coming (for the orb light that had returned temporarily blinded her as she squinted towards the approaching man), she would have taken the limb to tend to it herself, but having another person suddenly just touch the missing limb to it's place, she found herself completely startled as she grabbed onto him suddenly as she felt the tickling affects of the sands twisting into one another, and the reanimated effects of her skin and muscles, and other insides, rejoining.
She hadnt' realized during the whole reattachment process she was clinging onto the hairy, wolfish man, but that was the last of her concerns. The reattached limb made her feel so strange as she shivered and panted wearily before murmuring a dizzied, "Thank you," before she lost her balance and fell with a weak sigh against his chest.
In hindsight Therrin realised that he should have allowed her to deal with her own arm, but he'd experienced being without an arm himself...without 2 arms in fact, but even so it could be awkward handling oneself with just one arm although he'd never had to re-attach a limb.
There were few moment in his solitary life that Therrin wished he was more inclined to keeping himself in a cleaner state, and having what appeared to be a young lady pressed up against him was certainly one of those moment, nonetheless his powerful arms automatically went to take Avarella's weight as she suddenly seemed to go faint as the process of the arm re-attaching itself seemed to drain her of energy.
Therrin felt the warmth of a living body under his hands, magic had a lot to answer for as this woman seemed to be filled with sand, and yet as far his hands could tell that fact would not be discovered by touch alone, at least she was somewhat more decently dressed now thanks to the other woman...not that it made much difference, it wasn't often Therrin found himself with his hands on any part of woman, and thus he had to fight the urge to let go to save her modesty because if he did, he'd surely drop her and he wasn't about to allow that either.
Still dizzy, Averella remained propped against his form, and if she was offended by his smell, she made no remark. Truthfully, it was the last thing on her mind, and she was just thankful the limb could be reattached, for the situation could have proved much worse.
And though she was somewhat more modest now, she had yet to actually put on the garb offered. It, however, was still pressed to her front, as more of the decayed fabric flaked away. It was then she could see Zaramay, and recalling she too, was a new friend to be concerned for, Averella found herself asking, "Those men.... they hadn't injured you, had they?"
Though it seemed, even if she was concerned, she was still in no place to seemingly be any help, as she still leaned against Therrin for support.
Therrin started slightly as he realised that what he though was a worn long tunic was merely being held to the young lady and the slip of fabric was ll that was between her and his own clothes, the fact that he was fully dressed at this point didn't matter to his fingers that now touched bare skin and the occasional scrap of well aged cloth that even as he touched it crumbled away even more.
The archaeologist in him wondered just how long she'd been in there to be wearing cloth so aged, in an environment like this the cloth should last fairly well, it was dry, and little evidence of the usual causes of decay, thus time was the main factor.
"Beg my pardon lady, but perhaps it would be an idea to put the tunic on?"
Therrin suggested, looking down at Averella whilst she waited for a response from the other woman.
"Oh!" she blushed and stepped away from the man. "Oh, yes! Please excuse me," she went on, and moved to hide behind the coffin, and as she squatted down behind it, she hastily worked atbrushing off theitchy decaying wraps."I apologize for the inconvenience" she went on with a sigh. Such was the life of a cursed woman. And as the last bits of wraps were shed, she timidly peeked over the coffin before crouching down again as she stumbled a bit to slipthe tunic on.
"So neither of you know those men in this... In my tomb?" she asked, trying to distract herself from her own flusteredness.
"Never met them before that's for sure, but I recognise the type." Therrin said, now with his back to Averella.
"They're bandits, or rather were bandits, which I guess is obvious. My guess is they were hoping to reap the benefits of the treasure in these ruins, benefits that the people who got killed in the traps didn't properly explain to them. The treasures here is knowledge, very little in the way of trinkets and such judging by the age and condition of the stuff I've seen so far."
Therrin studied the wall quite carefully as he waited for Averella to finish dressing.
"I do apologize for the traps, they've been there for countless years. I just have left them well enough alone when I travel. Though, I suppose now that I think of it, it was probably bound to happen that someone should stumble upon them. Oh, perhaps I should have considered finding a way to disarm them,"she went on thoughtfully as she stepped out, now dressed in the other woman's tunic, her dark, curly hair cascading off her shoulders and framing her face with a bit of choppy layers that probably were due for a brushing.
Therrin considered the now dressed and apparently young woman.
"I would not worry about the traps Lady, they make my time interesting and give me a challenge on the way in and often the way out too."
Now the bandits were dealt with and Therrin no longer had any blatant visual distractions he studied the room more carefully, but what he was looking for was not in this room.
"If I may be so bold, this place, do you know it well. Not just this room, but the whole complex?"
He asked, hoping Avarella may know more of what he might find within this underground complex.
Averella looked up at him and gave a mousy blink.
"Lady? Oh! Please, just call me A.." And she hesitated a moment before sighing through a smile and saying her name, "Averella. And you are?" But then she recalled he had given to to the woman so she could curse him when she died. "Wait.. Therrin, is that right?" she asked, peering up at him curiously. "And about this place.. well yes, you could call it my home. I know it rather well." And she gave him a rosy cheeked grin.
"Oh good, Averella. I'm seeking artifacts, or murals."
Therrin began.
"They'd be very ancient, thousands of years and depicting beasts that stand like men and resemble wolves or dogs in some fashion, they're usually depicted as being red in colour, the art style is fairly simplistic, but the canine features to stand out. Maybe there's a big wall somewhere with a mural on, or even just a pot....does any of this sound familiar?"
Therrin's demeanor had changed fairly drastically from that of some savage warrior to an excitable scholar. He was almost dancing on the spot as he spoke and pinged questions at the diminutive female in front of him.
"Oh? That's strange you ask," she went on with a blink. "There's a wall two chambers over, with a painting that I believe fits your description." ANd with some realization she found herself asking, "Oh! Are you some sort of antiquities expert.. an archaeologist, or some such?"
It would make sense why he wasn't traveling with thugs.
"Of sorts yes, I spend a lot of time tracking down treasures and artifacts, sometimes I do this for someone else, sometimes for myself."
Therrin hefted the backpack that appeared to be his sole possession, although clearly full of...something. This was now far more exciting that fighting off random thugs, although they'd been quite well prepared and an awful lot more capable that the usual raiders he might come across. Therrin considered though that usually his adventures into underground caverns and temples were very lonely affairs, most feared to enter due to the possibility of ghosts, undead, mummies and other such creatures. His adventures had found such things to be merely myth, not that such creatures didn't exist, just not as commonly as most believed.
"Okay then Avarella, please lead the way unless there's anything else you need from this room?"
"Well I.." she blinked, realizing only then how dark it was inside and she began to wonder...
"I wonder what became of the woman with the lights?"
There was no evidence she was still around,a nd she could only hope she hadn't been harmed during the attack.
"Can you.. do you see her at all?" Averella asked, worried.
"Why no I cannot, she must have left after the fight."
Therrin walked out of the entrance, his fine sense of smell following her trail which seemed to lead back the way he'd entered the temple himself. She had however left the glow orb behind which he didn't need, but Averella was likely to.
Walking back into the room he took the orb from where it rest and he gave it to Averella.
"Here, why don't you lead the way to the painting and hopefully it'll be something I'm looking for."
Therrin said with a bright grin, entirely ignoring the dead bodies around them.
She lifted up the orb with a thankful, nodding gesture before lifting it up and feeling the magic blossom. Now able to see, she looked around, and spotted the doorway that would lead to the mural.
"This way, through the door with the lotus flower above it."
And forward she went, leading the way down this hallway and the next before making a turn and gesturing for him to see.
"Is this the mural you seek?" She inquired, the paint, though old, was still preserved quite well, flaking in only some places and fading and cracked in others. But just as he had described, there were a series of red looking dogs painted across it as Averella sighed through a smile to observe it alongside him.
"My mother used to tell me some stories about them. She wasn't much for one liking stories that sounded like nightmares,a nd even though I knew the more popular stories spoke of these kind in a darker light, she always had a way to turn it around and make these beings heroes. Although the truth behind them has even yet to be proven to this day. It's said this being of red-dog like creatures were long extinct, even before my days, I'd guess."
"Hmm, yes that's interesting. You mother wasn't far wrong from what I've learned. They were not dogs at all, but higher beings. I think they were like demons, but the opposite if you consider demons evil at all. Such things are often relative though and I think perhaps their view of the world and the life in it was simply different."
Therrin stepped closer to the mural to study some of it's detail in more depth, the design was simple in execution, older than some images he's found, but there was complexity in the paint used and little tell-tale details that revealed interesting features.
"Whoever was responsible for painting this was purposely trying to mislead Averella, see these lines here and here, and how that curve is done? It all points towards a painting style that is fairly advanced, this mural was drawn with the intention of making the view think they were looking at something more simplistic. It's almost like having a fort made of rough stone blocks, but finding that the stone blocks were purposely made to look rough and crude, but have been held together with mortar. It is a most remarkable piece."
Therrin stood close to her, allowing the glow orb to give the image colour for him instead of relying on his greyscale night vision. Although interesting the mural unfortunately did not really give him much in the way of new information. As he thought his body did something his conscious mind did not consider, he stood in the typical position of a waiting guard...one who spent many hours trying to 'part of the furniture' when standing around nobility.
"Interesting.. I haven't thought much on it, truthfully. From time to time, when I get lonely, yes, I do like coming here to reminisce but.." she shrugged and looked his way, but upon seeing him standing in a familiar way, made her giggle. Hadn't her guards used to stand that way in this very room?
Therrin heard the giggle, he had to admit he quite liked it, there was something familiar and warming about it.
"Oh, now that's an interesting piece!" Therrin suddenly said dropping his backpack to the ground.
He opened it and pulled out a piece of papyrus and a finely pointed piece of dark chalk. Therrin then set to copying a part of the mural which on close inspection appeared to either a landmark, or possibly even a map of some kind. However whatever it was had been carefully hidden within the image.
Averella would be able to see that Therrin's abiltiy to copy an image was uncannily accurate.
Peering over his shoulder, her eyes sparkled at the sight.
"Oh wow! You're quite an artist!"
"Not really, I cannot do people. It's weird, even copying a picture of a person is beyond me unless it's a simple or stylised person, but copying a map, or this mural, easy."
Therrin could feel Averella at his shoulder which was intensely distracting, some of her hair was tickling at his ear and yet he also felt an excitement he couldn't quite explain. Sure she was attractive, that much was clear to him, but there was something more to how he suddenly felt, as though he'd been waiting for this moment all his life. Therrin was hardly the sort of guy to be chasing women or be chased by them, but he wasn't unused to spending time with women and for all the hundreds of years he'd been alive he'd never felt this way.
Oblivious to what Therrin was feeling, Averella insisted,
"Oh? Surely you could learn it if you were to try. Have you ever been given the chance to try to draw a person? I am limited in my own drawing abilities, but if anything, I can assure you, practice makes perfect. And your ability to copy this sort of thing can only prove that if given the chance, I'm sure you'd make a lovely drawing."
She was still quite close to him, not realizing it might be this close proximity having some sort of an effect. Though perhaps it wasn't just that, but the environment for him, as well.
Therrin looked at Averella squinting his eyes.
"You know I cannot shake the feeling that I know you, but how could that be, we've only just met and you've been stuck in that tomb for....I don't know how long!"
Therrin was changing the subject, but in a way he thought was best, the focus on trying to draw people just wasn't working for him and the feeling was nagging at him that this beautiful creature was perhaps someone he knew...his head hurt just trying to focus on that thought and that was odd as he never had headaches....well....except when someone was trying to hurt him inolving his head.
"Oh? A strange thought indeed." Frowning, she looked him,over. "I can't say the feelings mutual but... Oh, I do feel at ease around you... Safe, if you know what I,mean." She shrugged and thought it over.
"Oh! Why don't you try to draw me? Well, maybe not know, but sometime when we don't feel so... Er, pressed for time? Maybe it will help you if the way I look feels familiar. If that makes sense and oh! I hope I don't come off as forward or rude to inquire! I won't be offended should you decline!"
"I'm a safe fellow to be around...usually and as long as you're not trying to do me any harm." Therrin said with a grin.
"I'm still not sure about this drawing, but somehow exercising art underground doesn't seem wise. I think perhaps we need to get back on track, I don't know about you, I'm sure you want to be able to see the surface again don't you? I still have these ruins to explore too."
Therrin stretched, an odd habit as his muscles rarely needed to be stretched, something about his healing always kept them in good condition. The room they were in was not revealing anything useful to him now, not that he was eager to get away from Averella.
"Oh! I'm sorry, I just got carried away," she admitted with a blush. "And perhaps I've just become too accustomed to the environment of my tomb." She lowered her gaze. "It... it's the only home I have now." Her next smile was forced. Only as she thought it over did she realize how it made her feel a bit pathetic. But it was hard to let go of her past, to something, the only thing, that remained of her 'living' life so many millenia ago.
"I bet you're eager to be in and out of here, I'm sure." She moved to look at what he sketched. "I just wish I could help you with that. Perhaps the next thing we face I can be a bit more useful."
The more she thought of it, she was realizing how much of an inconvenience she had become. Then again, they hadn't met that long ago. Perhaps she was just being too paranoid over it.
But as she studied his face, she gave a curious tilt of his head. Strange..
As he had mentioned earlier he felt something familiar about her and this environment.
Strange indeed. Something about him looked somewhat familiar as well.
Then again she had seen countless faces over the year and in such poor lighting as this, it would be remarkable if anything substantial could come of it. What was she to think anyway? Maybe it was just his mannerism that reminded her of someone else in a time long forgotten. There were too many memories by now, for her to certainly remember them all!
"Your only home? Would you choose to stay here then?" Therrin asked as he studied some more of the wall.
There was something odd about a section of the wall, the mural didn't match the rest. He ran his fingers over the brickwork, it was newer...not by much, but certainly slightly newer than the rest of the wall, he figured it must have been added before the place became a ruin, but certainly after the rest of the wall was constructed...there had been a doorway here that was sealed off.
"Eager? no, I quite enjoy exploring dusty old places, they tend to be pretty quiet and I enjoy being alone....not that I mind your company of course..hmm...any ideas about this wall, if you've been in that tomb so long do you recall a doorway being here, is it a secret door or just filled in?."
Therrin said gesturing to the part of the mural he believed to be a doorway.
"This wall?" She peered at it curiously, a thoughtful finger tapping to her lip. "I've never noticed the differences before. It's.. always been this way as far as I can recall."
She felt useless to him at that point, even more so at his comment he liked to be alone. Perhaps it's why she began to feel a little nervous, or at least embarrassed.
"I'm sorry I'm not much help."
"Don't sweat it too much Averella, you've been trapped in a tomb for...well...I doubt even you know how long huh?" Therrin said, sensing that she was perhaps feeling a little down or uncertain about something.
He ran his hand again over the wall, then tried pushing it. He felt the wall give slightly which was promising, but it didn't give by much. Even if there was a secret mechanism if it was so old that the door wasn't visible in Averella's time then the mechanism surely didn't work now.
"Averella...umm...this is going to sound odd, but I want you to hit me, hard as you can. Do it like you really mean to hurt me...if it helps use something..I err...need you to get me annoyed?"
He didn't know the half of it when he mentioned her time in the tomb. She wasn't here for forever, but her death cycle did allow her many times to awaken. She normally used that time to try to find answers but... sometimes she couldn't bring herself to do it. It was a long hard process and she only had so much time before she'd simply die again and when that happened, she had no idea where she'd end up. Sometimes it was safer to remain here, back inside her tomb- but each return, she feared, would bring new potential to the discovery of it- and with that, vandals.
But what brought her out of those muddling thoughts was when the man just asked her to...
She blinked.
"You want me to what?"
"Hit me, not to make me unconscious or to kill just enough to hurt."
Therrin said, knowing the request was odd sounding.
"Look, if you can get me angry enough I'll get stronger. It's a bit weird I know, but at full strength I could punch that wall open. I cannot hit myself though it doesn't work like that and whilst I cannot die I can still be rendered unconscious or temporarily..err...dead so I need you to do things to me to anger me rather that actually kill me. There's a lot of potential locked in my body, but I cannot bring it all out at will. I don't know if that's a memory thing or a condition of being what I am."
Therrin explained, hoping that if Averella had an explanation she wouldn't find it so odd. Of course it might backfire, knowing she was doing it to intentionally anger him might not actually do the trick because he knows it's coming.
"Oh."
She just stared at him, mouth gaping like a fish. Then she bowed her head, blushing as she shook her head animatedly.
"Oh, please forgive me! I.. I just couldn't! I.. I don't even think I could if I tried!"
She was by no means aggressive, and such a query put her well outside of her comfort zone.
"Can't.. can't we figure out another way? To see if there's not a tool nearby we could use to loosen the rock, or even perhaps a hidden lever if there is more to this hidden door than just what we can currently detect?"
Therrin chuckled, not in an unfriendly way though.
"Well you're sweet I'll give you that. You probably could if pushed to it, but I'm not so desperate to make you angry enough with me to want to hit me not that sort of man."
Therrin thought for a while, there must be another way and he felt certain that there must be something behind a door hidden so well that a person who used to walk past it often didn't even realise there was a door there. If there was a mechanism it wasn't magical, he'd know. Then if it was so old would it still work, but then often simple mechanisms often lasted for a very long time. He would just need to find the part of the mechanism that would open it.
Typically such things were very close to the door itself, it made it easier to build and operate. Therrin started feeling around the wall again.
"Averella, you can help me with this then, feel around the wall, slowly and carefully. You're looking for any part with seems unusual or different, maybe it moves slightly or can be pulled?"
She wanted to help. She truly did, but she pouted and held back. Nothing looked visually off. At least not to her. But she tried to push past the familiarity with the location, with the paintings on the wall, with well... everything here and just think to how the room was structured. What parts used to stand out to her the most that might have her questioning they might be used for something else now to break this puzzle.
She closed her eyes to concentrate. Her mind falling back through hundreds of years of information to a time whens he was quite small and she recalled a pedestal. She shifte din that direction, eyes still closed as she continued to dive deeper into her memories. The pedestal used to gleam when it was polished but the days have long since gone and the shine, now well worn over and it's brightness, snuffed out. There had always been a series of strange recesses set into the pedestal. She never thought much into it except for the design had been unique.
Opening her eyes, she moved towards it, bending down and brushing off the dust as she began to let her fingers smooth over the surface and studied the small recesses within it. Stars. Most of them looked like stars. But she paused when she came across one she almost had over looked.
This one looked like a pair of eyes.
"Hakeshna's eyes," she murmured and turned to the wall in question. There, painted in a recess overtop of it were the exact same pair of eyes- only larger and almost invisible now since their paint and gleam had long since faded over time.
"Hakeshna?" Therrin said, whilst it was said quietly in this enclosed space he couldn't help but overhear.
"Interesting to find references to Hekeshna in a ruin so old, it is an ancient religion the Essryni follow, the eyes have strong significance. We have eyes so that we may see and yet often fail to see that which is most clear."
Therrin knelt by the pedestal, his earlier discomfort at being so close to a woman as pretty as Averella now gone in his desire to unravel the mystery of the door. He also ran his fingers over the recesses, some clearly felt like star shaped objects, two were smooth round holes placed much like a pair of eyes. The fact that Averella did not recall them to be eyes suggested that they were never painted as such although the significance was lost on Therrin for now, he believed it to be important though because the deity's eyes were directly above the door.
He blew at the dust some more and felt around the recess in the pedestal....there was a fine line around the smaller eyes and stars, so fine it was almost impossible to detect. It was a circle...the eyes and stars were meant to be turned and each of the stars had a different number of points which likely meant that they were an indication of how it was meant to be turned.
Therrin tried using his thumb and fore-finger to turn the circle using the eyes as leverage points, it didn't budge.
Averella held her breath. When nothing happened, she frowned.
"Perhaps it's not meant to be moved?" she asked. "Maybe.. something needs inserted?" She wasn't sure if that suggestion was even helping.
"A key! Yes there must have been a key of some kind, I suspect it was a 2 pronged key, probably with a handle to make it easier to turn, do you recall ever seeing anything like that Averella?"
Therrin was excited, this was one of his best finds yet, normally his finds were old vases, ancient barely surviving scripts or odd murals that literally went nowhere, here he had an actual secret door!
Averella blinked.
"I'm not sure a traditional key would fit." She blinked and observed it closer. There were definitely recesses, and some went in deeper than other- like key holes, only more shapely, with obvious ornamentation.
Taking the details into account, she stepped closer to the wall in question and let her hands smooth down the support beams around a door frame type decore.
"I remember the stories about the door locks... I know it sounds silly and is an old tail, but ancient Essyrni society once held locks within the rooms using iconic symbols as keys."
She continued to look and gasped when her hands fell over something brass. It was just about the right size of the recess, and when she began to twist it, the brass ornament began to come loose from it's frame.
"Look!" she held up the small brass charm, which was no bigger than a marble, up in the palm of her hand so he could see it. "This looks like it could fit in one of the recesses. Shall we try it?" It couldn't hurt, right? So over to the pedestal she went, and found the matching piece. This one was a bird, with leaves for eyes. She took the metal one and placed it into it's matching recess. It snapped into palce as she held her breath.. but nothing happened.
"Perhaps there is something else to it?" Her hands idly moved up and down the shaft where the other hollows were. "Or.. we need to find each insert..?" She looked over at the door, and then around the room. There could be others but...
One part that had her worried was the tomb was pretty old and the pieces were made of brass, or gold.. something metal and once shiny. It was very possible if someone found these trinkets, and although small, they might have taken them for money. She had seen too many tomb robbers in her day. But she wasn't about to dash their hopes yet. especially as her eyes fell upon another similar shaped and sized one attached to a nearby, long since vacant, water chamber.
"Look! Another!" She unscrewed the piece and held it up into what fragments of light were afforded. "This one looks like the head of a snake."
Therrin was impressed, Averella was suddenly looking very enthusiastic after clearly being so down from feeling useless and here she was finding lots of keys for the lock on the pedestal. There was clearly something still missing though as the lock was designed to turn. The keys would allow it to turn, but a device would still be needed to actually turn it.
The was a remarkable complex lock given how old it was which encouraged Therrin to consider that what lay behind the door would be quite valuable in some way or another.
"You're doing a great job Averella! well done!" Therrin said with a grin that stuck out due to his dark beard.
He proceeded to assist in the search of the room hoping like Averella that the ravages of time and raiders had not resulted in some of the keys going missing, they were metal which some considered valuable irrelevant of the kinds of metal involved.
Therrin found another of the keys. "Ahh, this one is a fish. Remarkable craftsmanship on these I must say." he said as he popped the small key into it's recess."
There was two recesses left. Upon further examining Averella deduced, "It looks like we're missing a lion's paw and.." Her eyes narrowed to try to decipher the last recess. "This one is hard to say." She gently blew on the hole to try to see if the dirt or tarnish might move, but the smudge was stubborn.
"Maybe it's a .... a lotus flower. The brass sculpture on the outside of it.." she went on, tapping the main base of the key. "This area around here looks like water.. waves.. maybe river waves." She looked at the recess again. "Perhaps the last shape is something that has to deal with the river. Maybe a hippopotamus or even a crocodile."
She sighed and looked around. "But we still need to find the lion's paw."
Therrin ran his fingers through his beard, only 2 key pieces left. They were so close it would be a shame to be unable to find the final pieces.
A lions paw and something else that wasn't obvious, could be a flower, could be an animal.
Therrin sighed looking around the room trying to spot any other likely hiding places, trouble is there was rubble in the room and thus it was very likely that the last two pieces were behind something they couldn't even see, let alone reach and they were perhaps very lucky to have found as many keys.
He looked at the pile that sat at the other side of the room.
"Nothing for it then, we shift that lot...or I do, I'll not put a lady to work!" Therrin said almost as much to himself as Averella.
Whilst Therrin was a fast healer that did not stop him from sweating so in anticipation of his activity he stripped to the waist removing his tunic revealing a tightly muscled chest and fairly powerful looking arms. He could at times gain supernatural strength, but was otherwise as strong as his lifestyle allowed him to be mixed with what he believed his physical condition was like when he became immortal...although he couldn't recall what he was like back then and right now he had a somewhat athletic strength, practical musculature designed for a variety of tasks rather that the focused strength of a bodybuilder or even a wrestler.
Therrin then started with the smaller pieces of rubble, being careful not to move anything that might destabilise the larger pieces, or even the room itself. He suspected though that the structure of the room was strong enough not to collapse from what he was moving.
"Oh, but I don't mind helping! Really! ANd what else am I to do?" she assured him as she followed after him, not unlike that of a dog at one's heels. Though the second his shirt came off, she couldn't help but gape at him. Thankfully it seemed he hadn't noticed, because when SHE did, she turned away and touched her burning hot cheeks.
She would have thought being alive for so many years, seeing a man in such a state wouldn't keep causing her to flush but... she supposed she was the way she was and there wasn't much changing that now. So when she was able to, she dropped her gaze to the floor, and held onto her skirts and bent down to get on her knees, and began to shuffle around at places that might potentially hide the sunken key pieces.